Life at London Heathrow continues to return to normal, but this time with an ever better Qatar Airways lounge in the mix.
London’s Heathrow Airport plans to reopen Terminal 4 “by July”, a spokesperson for the airport says, with Qatar Airways tipped to make a speedy return to its former home.
T4 was closed in May 2020 as the coronavirus decimated air travel, with Heathrow effectively shrinking to just two terminals at T2 and T5.
But 2022 has seen the recovery picking up pace, with the airport now expecting to see 53 million passengers across 2023 – although this remains a far cry from the all-time record high of 80.9 million passengers in 2019.
Never the less, at 65% of pre-pandemic traffic it’s time for T4 to swing back into action, Heathrow says, with the move primarily relieving pressure on British Airways’ Terminal 5 hub.
Executive Traveller understands that Qatar Airways is readying to shift back to T4, where its Premium Lounge – generally regarded as one of the airport’s classiest spaces – has undergone an extensive renovation and expansion.
Speaking to Executive Traveller in late 2019, a Qatar Airways executive said the Premium Lounge needed to grow in size in response to increased popularity for the both the airline and its London-based flights.
At the time the Oneworld member had six daily flights between its Doha hub and London Heathrow, and as of May this number has already climbed back to five flights, with two of those featuring the double-decker Airbus 380 and the remainder on the high-capacity Boeing 777.
That flight schedule is also prone to lounge-crowding peaks, especially in the morning and again in the early afternoon.
Source: Executive Traveller